Winters Japantown Monument Dedication

On Saturday, May 4, Consul General Osumi joined the dedication ceremony for the historic Japantown in the city of Winters in Yolo County, California. Prior to the ceremony, Consul General toured the Winters Museum’s exhibit on Winters Japantown with Floyd Shimomura, whose family resided in Winters before World War II. The event was attended by several hundred people, including past residents of the Winters Japantown and their descendants. In his remarks, Consul General Osumi praised the community for honoring the memory of the Japantown, and for the contributions of Japanese Americans to Japan-U.S. friendship.  The monument was unveiled in Winters Rotary Park and contains a history of the Japantown that once stood at the location with a photo from the 1930s.
 
Japanese immigrants first came to Winters in 1888, working in the areas booming agricultural industry. There were an estimated 300 Japanese and Japanese American residents in Winters by the 1930s. Following Executive Order 9066 Winters area residents of Japanese heritage were sent to incarceration Camps in Gila River, Arizona and Amache, Colorado. A fire that started during V-J Day celebrations in Winters in 1945 destroyed the buildings of Winters’ Japantown. Facing hostility immediately following release, fewer than 15 percent of the prewar Japanese ethnic population returned to Winters.
 
We would like to thank the Winters Historical Society, the descendants of Japantown residents, and the greater Winters community for preserving this lost part of Japanese American and Japan-U.S. history for future generations.
 
For more information on Winters Japantown and the monument, please see the Winters Museum website: https://www.wintersmuseum.org/